LOS ANGELES, July 23, 2020 – At today’s Comic-Con@Home panel, Legendary Comics announced a thrilling new original graphic novel, Head Wounds: Sparrow, from creator Bob Johnson; with story by John Alvey; and developed by Oscar Isaac (Show Me A Hero; the Star Wars franchise; Denis Villeneuve’s upcoming Dune), for his production company Mad Gene, and Jason Spire; available in stores and online in 2022. Leo Guidry is a bad person and an even worse cop. When he suffers a psychic head wound, his life on the edge slips into spiritual warfare. In a landscape of angels, devils, and everything in between, can a person utterly devoid of empathy find a way to overcome the forces of darkness that have infiltrated his reality? This is the world of Head Wounds: Sparrow.
During the panel, the creative team—including childhood friends Isaac, Johnson, and Alvey—discussed the deeply personal origin of the Head Wounds story. When diagnosed with stage 4 non-Hodgkin lymphoma and as a way to cope, Johnson turned to his passion of writing and created the character of Leo. Inspired by a dream, Johnson conceived the supernatural affliction that haunts Leo throughout the story and forces him to face his own past trauma and lack of empathy. Head Wounds features an original world with compelling mythology created by Johnson and Alvey that will instantly draw in readers. To watch the creative team divulge exclusive details regarding the new graphic novel during the Comic-Con@Home panel, please visit: https://youtu.be/e0KZ3GOoW3A.
“Head Wounds: Sparrow is an exceptionally powerful tale as it draws from the creators’ own life experiences, as well as their passion for the medium,” said Robert Napton, Senior Vice President of Legendary Comics. “Sometimes things come together so effortlessly, and this is one of those projects.”
“Bob Johnson has a mind and a soul like no one else,” said Isaac. “Our friendship and creative collaboration has spanned nearly three decades. I couldn’t be more excited to bring his unique and singular vision of Head Wounds: Sparrow to life with the incredible group of artists we’ve assembled.”
Head Wounds: Sparrow is written by New York Times’ best-selling writer Brian Buccellato (Legendary Comics’ POKÉMON: Detective Pikachu and Lost in Space: Countdown to Danger; DC Comics’ Flash and Injustice) and will feature art by Christian Ward (Invisible Kingdom; ODY-C; Marvel’s Black Bolt).
Fans tuning into Comic-Con@Home are invited to join the comic creators and the Legendary Comics team, Robert Napton, Jann Jones, and Nikita Kannekanti, as they discuss and share exclusive looks at upcoming projects including: Rob, the modern day retelling of the classic tale Robin Hood, available digitally on Webtoon in Fall 2020; the visionary young adult (YA) titles: The Heart Hunter, Lupina, and Championess, set for release in 2021; the newly announced original noir graphic novel Head Wounds: Sparrow, from actor Oscar Isaac; and the supernatural thrillers: Bram Stoker’s Dracula starring iconic film and stage actor Bela Lugosi and the special 10th anniversary deluxe hard copy graphic novel Trick ‘r Treat collection, both coming to stores and online in October 2020. The full panel can be viewed at: https://youtu.be/e0KZ3GOoW3A.
For Head Wounds: Sparrow artwork, please visit: https://bit.ly/HeadWounds.
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About the creative team:
Head Wounds: Sparrow marks the debut comic book project for Bob Johnson and John Alvey, longtime childhood friends of Isaac who share his passion for storytelling, music, and comics.
Oscar Isaac is a critically acclaimed and award-winning actor, producer and musician. In 2016, he earned a Golden Globe for his role on the HBO miniseries Show Me A Hero in the Best Actor in a Miniseries or Television Film category as well as a Critics’ Choice nomination for Best Actor in a Movie or Miniseries. Two years prior, he scored an Independent Spirit Award for Best Male Lead and a Golden Globe nomination for his portrayal of the title character in the Coen Brothers’ film Inside Llewyn Davis. He additionally was featured on numerous songs on the film’s soundtrack. That same year, Isaac led J.C. Chandor’s action-packed drama, A Most Violent Year, for which he earned the National Board of Review Award for Best Actor with the film earning the Best Film nod. The following year, Isaac starred in Ex Machina written and directed by Alex Garland. The National Board of Review recognized the film as one of the ten best independent films of the year. In 2015, Isaac starred as the Resistance pilot, Poe Dameron, in the highly awaited Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the seventh installment in the main Star Wars film series. Directed, co-produced, and co-written by J.J. Abrams, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, was the first of a trilogy planned by Disney. Isaac returned as Poe Dameron in Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017) and most recently in the final chapter Stars Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019). Other acting credits include The Promise (2016), X-Men: Apocalypse (2016), Suburbicon (2017), Annihilation (2018), Operation Finale (2018), of which he also is credited as a producer, Life Itself (2018), Triple Frontier (2019), At Eternity’s Date (2019), and The Addams Family (2019). In 2017, Isaac headlined The Public Theater’s summer production of Hamlet with Sam Gold at the helm. Off-Broadway, Isaac appeared in Zoe Kazan’s play We Live Here at Manhattan Theatre Club, as Romeo in Romeo and Juliet, and in Two Gentlemen of Verona, the latter productions for The Public Theater’s Shakespeare in the Park. Isaac also appeared in Beauty of the Father at Manhattan Theatre Club and in MCC Theater’s Grace. Additional theatre credits include: Arrivals and Departures, When It’s Cocktail Time in Cuba and Spinning into Butter. Next up, Isaac will star in the much-anticipated reboot of Dune, an adaption of the bestselling novel of the same name by Frank Herbert. The film is set to hit theaters December 18th. Additionally, Isaac is set to star in Paul Schrader’s The Card Counter, with Martin Scorsese as an executive producer on the project.
Jason Spire is the founder of Inspire Entertainment, a talent management and production company with offices in New York and Los Angeles. Spire graduated from the University of California at Berkeley and learned the ropes at CAA (LA) and ICM (NY) before joining the Gersh Agency’s NY office. While at the Gersh Agency, Jason made a name for himself developing hot young talent as well as established names in film, television and theatre. Jason now represents Golden Globe winning actor Oscar Isaac (Show Me a Hero, Dune, Inside Llewyn Davis), Anthony Mackie (Falcon and Winter Soldier, The Banker, Seberg), Lela Loren (“Altered Carbon,” “Power”), Shannon Tarbet (Love Sarah, “Genius,” Beast, Collette), among many other up and coming stars of the theatre, film and television worlds. He also spearheads Inspire Entertainment’s production slate in conjunction with their various clients. This includes the MGM released Operation Finale which Jason produced alongside Oscar Isaac. He is currently in post on the Netflix futurist action film Outside the Wire which he produced with Anthony Mackie. He has several films in various stages of development, including: Make a Wish (a Blacklisted comedy script set up at Paramount), Signal Hill (a Johnnie Cochran bio-pic), The Great Machine (a film set up at Legendary based on the Brian K. Vaughn graphic novel), The Garbo Network (a WW2 spy thriller set up at Studio Canal), among many others. For more information, please visit Facebook.com/InspireEntertainment.
Brian Buccellato is a New York Times best-selling writer best-known for his work on Flash and Injustice for DC Comics. Brian started in comics as a colorist for the Marvel/DC crossover Punisher/Batman and went on to color for all the major publishers, including work on The Uncanny X-Men, Superman and The Flash. Buccellato started his comic writing career at Top Cow with The Darkness before teaming with Francis Manapul to co-write The Flash and Detective Comics at DC. He is the creator of Foster, Sons of the Devil and co-creator of Cannibal for Image Comics. His most recent work includes Lowlifes from IDW and Lost in Space: Countdown to Danger for Legendary. He is currently quarantined in Cypress Park with his family and a very small cat.
Christian Ward is a comic book artist and writer. His books include the Eisner Award-nominated Invisible Kingdom with G Willow Wilson, the cosmic space opera ODY-C which he co-created with Matt Fraction and the Eisner Award-winning Marvel comic Black Bolt with Saladin Ahmed. In 2020, he also published his debut comic book as a writer: Machine Gun Wizards with the artist Sami Kivelä. He currently lives in Shrewsbury, UK with his wife Catherine, two young daughters and a pug named Thor.
About Legendary Comics:
Legendary Comics was born out of a passion for mythic entertainment, seeking out new talent and working with the best and the brightest in the industry to create transportive worlds, inspirational characters, and spectacular adventures that leap off the page. Founded in 2011, Legendary Comics has produced an exciting catalogue of original titles that continues to grow and evolve. From partnerships with industry legend Frank Miller to Grant Morrison’s Eisner-nominated Annihilator, Legendary Comics has a passion for innovative new stories, including the fantasy graphic novel The Heart Hunter, the historical fiction story Championess (based on the true story of Elizabeth Wilkinson) and Jessica Chobot and Erika Lewis’ hit webseries, Firebrand: The Initiation of Natali Presano. In addition to original titles, Legendary Comics also expands the scope of the cinematic universes of its parent company Legendary Entertainment, by bringing big-screen adventure exploding onto the comic book page. Working with the visionary filmmakers and the architects of Legendary’s Monsterverse, they have delivered the level of quality and authenticity our fans demand with New York Times best-sellers such as Godzilla: Aftershock, Pacific Rim: Aftermath, and Skull Island: The Birth of Kong, to name a few. For more information, please visit: Legendary.com/Comics.
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